Basket Blues: Use Your Words

 

Today’s post is a monthly writing challenge. If you’re new here, this is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once. All of the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s  participating knows who got their words and in what direction the recipient will take them. Until now.

 

At the end of this post you’ll find links to the other blogs featuring this challenge. Check them all out, see what words they got and how they used them.

I'm using: sympathetic ~ clergy ~ hot air balloon ~ air fryer
They were submitted by Rena of The Diary of an Alzheimer's Caregiver.

                           

Confession time: when I first saw my word prompts included clergy, and since we're so close to St. Valentine's Day, I thought I'd take my post in that direction. Turns out that was a mistake. That's what happens when the Jewish girl gets the clergy prompts.

 

Googling to be sure I had my facts straight, I ended up more confused than when I started. Seems there were a plethora of St. Valentines, and even one pope. I started to rethink where I'd take this post when I read that although the St. Valentine we all think of, the patron saint of epilepsy and beekeepers (isn't that an esoteric pairing) is still recognized as a saint, but is no longer on the General Catholic Calendar of Saints.

 

But I put the brakes on hard when I went on to read that the skull of St. Valentine is adorned with flowers and on display in Rome (with other parts of his skeleton in churches in other countries). Time to pick a new direction. 

 

Maybe I could see if I can use all my words in one sentence. Or one story. Or one story using all of my words in each sentence.

 

Or maybe I need a nice long rest in a peaceful monochromatic rubber room.

But until then . . .

 

If ever there was a time to be sympathetic, it's when one of the local clergy tossed his cookies air fryer hot wings, in the basket of the hot air balloon. 

But being sympathetic was not on the hot air balloon owner's agenda, even if it was a member of the clergy, and it was he who had actually offered his guests pre-flight appetizers, including the air fryer hot wings.

The (decidedly unsympathetic) hot air ballooner committed then and there that since he couldn't (and wouldn't) ban the clergy from rides (since it's his business), he'd skip the air fryer hors d'oeurves, offering only (oven baked) snacks from now on.

 

Strawberry Creme Blondies

Fellow hot air ballooners, having had similar issues with clients before (although admittedly involving neither clergy nor air fryers), laughed quite unsympathetically at their friend's afternoon basket clean up {{ewww}}.

But while cleaning out the hot air balloon basket, the owner, feeling badly about his unsympathetic attitude, decided that he would later drop by the church with a gift for the clergy: his (barely used but no longer wanted) air fryer.

And maybe a free pass to the local hot air balloon festival, where the clergy (along the rest of the attendees) could watch from the ground, eating air fryer hot wings to their hearts' content, while the owners (their sympathetic tendencies, or lack thereof, now immaterial) float happily above.

 

Here are links to all the other Use Your Words posts:

On the Border

The Diary of an Alzheimer’s Caregiver 

Climaxed

Part-time Working Hockey Mom

 

Strawberry Creme Blondies

                                               ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1 stick butter

1 1/4 cups brown sugar

1/3 cup plus 2 TBSP strawberry jam, divided

3/4 tsp vanilla

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

24 Hershey's strawberry creme hearts

Directions:

*Grease a 9 X 13 baking dish. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

*Melt the butter in the microwave. Whisk in the brown sugar, 1/3 cup of the strawberry jam, and the vanilla. One at a time, whisk in the eggs.

*Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt into the bowl. Make sure it's all well incorporated.

*Spread evenly into the prepared baking dish.
*Whisk the remaining 2 TBSP strawberry jam to loosen it up a bit. Drizzle over the batter. Drag a toothpick gently through the jam to spread over the top of the batter.

*Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the edges are brown and the center is set.

*Cool on the counter for 30 minutes. While the blondies are cooling, unwrap the candies. After 30 minutes, place the candies onto the brownies in 6 rows of 4. Place the blondies into the fridge and cool completely before removing to slice. Store, covered, at room temperature.